Courageous Followers: Is It Important To Build Relationships With Their Followers?

Reading the article Courageous followers, courageous leaders and doing the discussion question that went along with it I learned that It is important for leaders to build relationships with their followers so they will know which member will have their back, speak up when a situation or problem arises or just be a bystander and do nothing. Ira Chaleff stated “traditional leadership theory puts the responsibility for the leader-follower relationship with the leader. In my observation, it often works the other way around. Those who work most closely with the leader, the senior ‘followers’ if you will, need to assume responsibility for keeping their relationship with the leader honest. The article goes on the say the older people or veterans are holding the rookies from being able to evolve, express their ideas and come up with new ways to be productive and in a timely manner. Some people think that followers don’t have a voice and only do what they are told. With that being said leaders

play an important role in everything and sometimes overlook the followers, but followers have opinions just like leaders do.
We have all been followers.

I feel you must be able to follow before you can lead, and sometimes followers have an advantage, because followers observe & pay more attention to their surroundings than leaders do and some leaders rely on their followers for most information. Most leaders don’t teach followers how to follow, they just follow. We all want to be leaders at some point in life for something, and no one wants to be a follower. From further reading the article I analyzed that leaders who can’t risk, can’t lead. We want to give praise and look up to the leaders all the all the time and look down on the followers, because most people think followers are weak individuals who only do what they are told and don’t support their leaders whole heartedly and don’t speak up when something is wrong or a problem or situation arises. In doing further research Ira Chaleff said the followers and leaders share a common purpose being a follower is the best training for a becoming a

leader.
In conclusion being a follower is the best training for becoming a leader. Leadership is a lifelong process you can never stop improving upon. There's no such thing as being too good of a leader, and the skills you learn or learned can be used in your professional career as well as your personal life. As people at all levels become more responsible for taking initiatives to advance organizational goals, the concept of follower and leader is certainly redefined. Today, we're all responsible for helping shape and advance our team's goals and our organization's vision.